US-Supplied Bombs Confirm: Journalists are 'Legitimate Targets'
According to Al Jazeera, the safety of journalists is eroding globally. While this is framed as a general trend, the article's own metadata specifically tags 'Gaza, Middle East, Palestine.' Funny how the largest number of journalists killed in a single conflict since records began—over 100 in Gaza in mere months—isn't linked to the specific, undeniable fact that the bombs killing them are
overwhelmingly supplied by the United States. President Biden's administration approved 100 foreign military sales to Israel since October 7, 2023, totaling billions in weaponry. (Source: State Department, Reuters, March 2024) Perhaps the 'likely to become more common' assessment is less a lament and more a policy forecast. When Congress votes to send billions more in military aid—often after
receiving generous PAC donations, like the hundreds of thousands from AIPAC to key House and Senate members in 2023 (OpenSecrets.org data)—it's not just funding 'defense.' It's also funding the means through which the uncomfortable truth of civilian casualties, including journalists, becomes a 'collateral inconvenience.' How many journalists must die before their deaths are considered an
intentional silencing, rather than an unfortunate consequence of 'self-defense'?